little hurricane

HearYa session alumni, little hurricane , have got themselves a new album coming out on March 4th via Death Valley Records. Here’s what CC & Tone have to say about the album.

GOLD FEVER was inspired by our time spent traveling and exploring the deserts of Southern California. It was recorded at an old apple packing farm from the 1800′s in the gold rush town of Julian, CA. We survived recording in 100+ degree heat without AC, black widows, scorpions, tarantulas, and true gold country life in the weeks we spent in Julian. As with our first album, we maintained our DIY attitude towards music, writing, recording and producing ourselves.

They also have a free download of covers that is pretty damn good as well. You can find that here.

Little Hurricane had quite a year in 2011. While many bands struggle for years to fight for the attention of fans, labels and the media, Little Hurricane found the buzz almost immediately.

The two-piece band formed after lead singer/guitarist Anthony Catalano posted an ad on Craigslist for a drummer. I’ve used Craigslist to sell a couch, area rug, and old dog dishes and I’ve encountered my fair share of characters. I can only imagine what type of humans emerge when you post and ad for a drummer in San Diego. Catching a drummer like Celeste Spina is like winning the lottery. She’s beautiful and loves grimy blues music. 90% of our readers just fell in love with her, including the females.

After forming and walking away with San Diego’s Best New Artist award in 2010, the band released their debut album Homewrecker (one of our favorites) last year, went on to perform at Lollapalooza and even had the song “Get By” featured on the ABC show Revenge. It was during their visit to Chicago for Lolla that we caught up with them for a session at Shirk Music + Sound.

The session features three songs from Homewrecker and one cover of “Grounds for Divorce” by English band Elbow. If you haven’t heard the original, go download it and thank Little Hurricane later for making the introduction. I hadn’t heard the original before and it’s already an addiction. It is also a special treat to hear these live takes of “Crocodile Tears” and “Trouble Ahead,” two of my favorite tracks on the album. Just wait for the little interlude at 2:40 on “Trouble Ahead.” It begs for an answer to a complex question, much like similar conundrums throughout our existence: Does a bear shit in the woods? Does a one legged duck swim in circles? Does a shark have a waterproof asshole? Would you like some slide guitar accompanied with cowbell? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Little Hurricane are touring around the NW in February before making stops in other cities on their way to Austin for SXSW in March. Visit their site for specifics on tour dates.

In the real world I work in insurance. Rising claims from the summer rain and wind has made life pretty shitty. So when Oz sent over an album called Homewrecker by a band called little hurricane (yes, all lowercase), I couldn’t help but admire the irony.

This dirty blues duo from San Diego was brought to our attention by Ryan from Muzzle of Bees fame. Ryan’s new job with C3 (the folks that put on Lollapalooza) put him in contact with little hurricane and, lucky for all of us, they were added to the Lolla lineup and agreed to visit us for a HearYa Live Session while in Chicago.

little hurricane are a two-piece that deliver a blues-based sound without pretense. You’ll find a dude named Tone on guitar and lead vocals and a spicy female drummer named C.C on drums and backing vocals. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to The White Stripes with this formula. They even have a couple of a call and response tunes such as “Crocodile Tears” and the phenomenal closing tune, “Give Em Hell.”

Don’t let the blues-duo comparisons fool you, however. little hurricane is more than capable of standing on their own. Check out the video below. If that doesn’t get your blood boiling, then you might need a defibrillator. The album is available for $5.99 over at Amazon.